This invention relates to adjustable beds, and in particular to an adjustable bed specifically adapted for the care of morbidly obese patients.
The morbidly obese patient; that is, one who weighs over twice as much as his or her maximum recommended body weight faces particular problems in hospital care and management. Such patients typically weigh between 300 and 700 pounds and existing hospital beds are typically not sufficiently sturdy to support such bulk. Because of excessive weight, the morbidly obese patient is often subject to a variety of associated health problems and may be unable to move from the bed without assistance. The bed thus becomes, in effect, a semi-permanent home in which the patient eats, sleeps, reads, watches television, and the like.
Because it is so difficult to transfer such patients from their beds to patient transport carts, X-ray tables and the like, the patients are preferably transported in their beds to health care subfacilities. Further, such patients typically experience great difficulty just climbing into and out of bed and often have to be assisted to avoid injury or exhaustion.